Paul McCartney Surprises Coachella With Beatles Rock Band Footage

The first footage of The Beatles: Rock Band came as a surprise over the weekend, playing on the giant screen behind Paul McCartney during his set at the Indio, California music festival Coachella on Friday.

As McCartney launched into a crowd-pleasing rendition of his Beatles hit "Got to Get You Into My Life," the massive display behind him lit up with unmistakable computer-generated images: the Fab Four themselves, as rendered in Rock Band‘s signature cartoonish style.

Fortunately for the rest of us, the performance (as well as probably the entire rest of Coachella) was captured in its entirety by several hundred camera phones. McCartney didn’t show any gameplay, just footage of the animated characters.

Notes:

What a clever idea — revealing totally benign footage, nothing gameplay-related, as a surprise, knowing that it was going to spread virally all over YouTube and gaming forums over the weekend. Also illustrates just how seriously the band takes this game.